What is theology at walking pace?

Theology at Walking Pace is about the slow meditative, contemplative turning over of ideas, the slow picking apart of problems, and the meandering journey toward the possibility of an answer. Theology at Walking Pace embraces a theological method that is slow, contemplative, contextual, relational, and historical.

Thinking like walking is slow and time-consuming work. You need time to grapple with complex ideas, engage with diverse opinions, read widely, mull over, and allow thoughts to slowly marinate before serving them up for consumption. Walking allows you the time to process not only what you are seeing today, but also what you saw yesterday or the day before.

Theology, like walking, is deeply contextual. There are few more contextual activities than walking. Traveling in a car allows you to pass through a community with little to no interaction with or conscious thought about that community. But walking requires you to inhabit that community – even if only briefly. When you walk, you have to be aware of your surroundings, you are forced to notice people, overhear snatches of disparate conversations, and take in the sounds, sights, and smells of your context. Walking invites you to notice a myriad of insignificant, and yet infinitely fascinating things. Things are easily missed with even the tiniest incremental increase in speed.

Theology, like walking, is relational. Walking provides endless potential for conversation, with an old friend or even a stranger who just happens to cross your path. Walking allows the tentative crossing of deep cultural and economic divides through a greeting or a nod of the head.

Theology, like walking, is historical. Walking means following in the footsteps of others, whether on a city road or a wilderness footpath. There are few genuinely original paths to walk. Good theology draws on the richness of the great traditions while developing a theology that speaks to the present and forges a path into the unknown future.